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Somnium Reflectere
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Kansai Maigo – Day 2
2019 年 12 月 07 日 Kansai Maigo 關西迷子,Maigo 迷途Renn (小夢認知)
I planned to have breakfast at Ikiikitei, a seafood bowl specialist shop at Omicho market. Kanazawa is on the Sea of Japan coast and has access to some of the freshest fish in Japan, seafood bowl is a common cuisine in Kanazawa.
The shop opens at 7 so I had the bread and coffee bought the night before first.
When it came time to go, the Machi-Nori bike dock terminal refused to operate. Not in service, it kept saying. After a few goes, I checked the service website, to discover that the bike does not operate before 7.30.
Why? Maybe system maintenance. Whatever the reason it meant I had to walk to Omicho Market instead.
It's only 600m to Omicho so I was not too bothered by this. When I got there however it took me a few minutes to find the small restaurant.
Tucked away in one side alley, the shop was so small it only had maybe 10 counter seats. I had to check twice to be sure I had found the place.
Omicho, Kanazawa's food central
Shops aren't open yet
Seafood can often be a bit pricey, often 3000Y or more, and having so much raw seafood in the morning can be overwhelming. Here they serve a mini-bowl option for just 1500Y, and if one wasn't choosy even a 800Y bowl of the day choice.
Ikiikitei
I squeezed in and found a seat. The place was not crowded but also no shortage of customers as several streamed in after me.
The chef held up a bowl, asked me how much rice I'd like. The normal portion, I answered.
The portion was more than expected, a dozen sashimi slices of various fishes whose name I had no hope of recognizing, a leg of octopus and a prawn. There were even gold specks decorations on top, as everything in Kanazawa are obliged to have.
Feast for breakfast
The seafood was very fresh, though not particularly notable compared to the rice which were quite flavourful.
A fish shop
Afterward I head to Higashi-Chaya area, the most historical district of Kanazawa.
Similar to Kyoto, Kanazawa was spared from air raids in the war and retained many of its historical districts. Higashi-Chaya was once the entertainment quarters in the Edo period. Some of the teahouses here are still in operation and when dusk falls the district takes on a different atmosphere and the sound of music reverberates behind screened windows.
Higashi-Chaya is situated to the north east of the castle, a quick 5-10min ride from Omicho. The Asano river separates it from center area of Kanazawa.
Just before crossing the river, on the south bank was another former tea district called Kazue-Chayagai, smaller in scale and fewer historical buildings. It distinguishes itself by being on the riverfront with a bank of cherry blossoms. The alleys are tight and there are several restaurants tucked away in its backstreets.
Kazue Chayagai
Underneath the blue sky, the cherry blossoms greeted early tourists energetically. The night's rain had barely dimmed their luster, only a few fallen petals laid on the ground.
Chayagai
Blossomed riverside
Tall tree in the alley
I followed the river south, crossed at a small bridge then circled about the other bank to the direction of Higashi-Chaya.
Back up the river toward the bridge
It was still early and there were few people about. Unfortunately the various shops also took this hour to load/unlock inventories so there were many cars and vans going to and fro on the main street, making a clear shot for the camera difficult. It was still too early for the preserved teahouses to be open, and I spent some time wandering the quarter first.
Morning and empty
Despite being the largest of Kanazawa's three Chaya districts, Higashi-Chaya is still only about a hundred twenty meters in length, consisting of a main street and three other side streets in parallel joined by connecting alleys.
Couple taking photos
Toward the back of the quarter I run across a shrine, the Utasu Shrine. Nestled on top of a small flight of stairs, within the grove of tall cherry blossom trees, the tori and hall's roof of the shrine peeked from behind canopies of flowers like geishas behind standing screens.
Whooaa
The shrine was empty other than the lone security guard who swept the grounds dutifully, oblivious to the scenery he was a part of.
Lone sweeping guard
It felt appropriate to give a little offering. While I loitered around a pair of teenage couple came up, awwing and taking photos of each other.
Ema and sakura
When I circled back to the main street the chaya Shima has opened.
Shima is one of the best preserved teahouses in the quarter, retaining much of its original furnishings from when it was built in the Edo period.
Like other teahouses Shima is a two level construction. Two storey buildings are a rare sight for houses of this period, houses for commoners were only permitted to have a single storey, teahouses were one of the few trades that were exempted from this restriction.
After paying the 500Y fee at the entrance, the guide route goes upstairs on a narrow flight of stairs. The top of the stairs opens up into the main entertainment room that connects to three other rooms where dances and music were performed to entertain guests. None of the rooms were very large, the largest at best 5 or 6 meters wide and could not have seated more than a handful of people, and the dances would have to be performed with the smallest movements. Sound from other guests would also surely have been major issue, the rooms separated only by paper doors. To me it was hard to imagine what entertainment could be had in these narrow confines.
I can only reason, in a time when travelling to a shrine at the foot of the distant mountain constituted a pilgrimage, the world must be a smaller place. And perhaps, the small confined space adds to the intimacy creates the feeling of being a world apart to the outside.
The teahouse characterized much of what I've come to understand about pre-modern Japan. The plainness, the carefully measured layouts. The small details in the corners. The seemingly nonsensical way the rooms connected. When the high class room had its wooden frame and pillars lacquered in luxurious red and the best regarded room had translucent paint to bring out the natural grain of the rare timber used.
Above the alcove and doorways hung faded ink paintings that for time ageless bore witness to the coming and going of samurais and merchants till the light of its abode faded and the wealthy patrons were replaced by the curious.
The facilities of the teahouse were housed on the ground floor, well preserved. Toward the front was the owner's living room, the office where cash books were kept and recorded the spending and bills for patrons and salary for the courtesans, some of these books were on opened on display, the writings difficult to decipher. In a small room facing the street the room was crowded with shelves displaying the tools of the old trade. Instruments and hair pins, ceramic and lacquer wares of most exquisite workmanship. Magnifying glass were provided to study the fine lines and details drawn or etched on the surface.
Toward the back was the old kitchen that saw the creation of many fine dishes on the woodfire stoves. There was a well and beneath the stairway an underground cool store used to keep ingredients fresh in the hot summer months. At the far back of the ground floor was a teahouse where one can have traditional matcha and sweets while appreciating the small Japanese garden.
I did not see the signs till almost finished touring, that photo using mobile phones was allowed.
The street had come to life, the blue sky backdrop to the verdant painted wood.
A pair of to be wed stood posed before praising eyes of DSLRs. Shuttered doors opened to welcomed customers.
The second teahouse, Kaikaro, still functions as a geisha house in the evening. At night it received selected guests only, in the day the mystic was lifted and the place opened to the curious public.
Kaikoro was at least three times the size of Shima, laid out in similar fashion.
The interior was better maintained, even possible to describe as glamorous in places. In the tokonoma hung well painted scrolls of flowers and birds. The rooms contrasted with luscious red and deepened blue.
Kaikoro main room
Luxurious blue
There was also a cafe within the teahouse with slightly more expensive menu.
The pride of Kaikoro was a room of literal gold. The threads of the tatami was woven with gold threads and the timber lacquer laid with gold leaf. When I had read about it initially I had imagined the epitome of bourgeois opulence; lavished crudeness of riches as shallow as the gold leafs. In person it was actually quite fitting of an aesthetics to be expected of Japan, the golden tatami reflected in a unremarked regal light, reserved with hint of splendour visible just beneath the surface.
Golden tea room
After Kaikoro I wandered around some more. There are many cafes and other small shops in the area, most numerous were the gold leaf shops. Every craft workshop had to have a presence here of course.
The smaller souvenir shops held works from less known workshops, some possibly even unknown ones that might well have been imported from China. They were also very souvenir looking and didn't earn more than a glance from me.
Corner of Higashi Chayagai
There were two gold leaf shops of note on the strip however. Hakuza Hikarikura and Hakuichi.
Hakuza Hikarikura is the more trendy and modern shop with many jewellery and accessories, gold leaf wine (which gave me pause and many questions as to why) and bags and lacquerwares. What makes it worth the visit though was that it boasted a gold leaf plated kura or storehouse, thus the name of the place. The kura was not as well lit as it might have been and the lustre cannot be compared to the golden room of Kaikoro.
Golden kura
Hakuichi on the other hand is very traditional with a strong focus on craft. The Hakuichi has several shops around the city and it hosts workshops that lets tourists create their own gold lacquerwares. During planning I had been very keen to book a workshop but ultimately could not because of time constraints.
The place sold gold leaf ice creams, many fine lacquerwares, gold leaf cosmetics and other art items, such as paper fans and even small armor sets. I had my eyes set on a series of ukiyoe printed on gold leaf (or gold leaf as one layer of the ukiyoe print, could not really tell which). I really wanted to buy it but failed to decide on the spot. There was still tomorrow, I told myself. Plus if I buy it now it might get wrinkled in the bag. There's a shop at the station, it'd be better to get it there.
Hakuichi
Very fine gold leafed plates
Hakuichi is without doubt the more interesting of the two. And I spent a long while there looking through the various items.
I headed to the gold leaf museum, on the edge of the district by the side of a busy road.
Officially called the Kanazawa Yasue Gold Leaf Museum, it is the only museum in Japan dedicated to gold leafs. Named for a gold leaf artisan Yasue Koumei from the Meiji period, the museum contains a gallery showcasing the history and process of gold leaf making in Kanazawa, as well as exhibition spaces displaying various art items utilizing gold leafs.
Gold leaf museum
The exterior was an unremarkable building with black claddings with gold linings and letters. The entrance might well have been mistaken for the local library, with little fanfare or signage.
As I have come to expect of most traditional museums the place was completely empty. The two front desks were genuinely surprised when I asked for the musuem daily pass, a pass which for just 510Y granted access to many of Kanazawa's museums and art galleries.
The first floor was a multi purpose exhibition space that was playing some Kanazawa tourism videos. I headed up stairs to the main gallery.
The first section was about the history of gold leaf in Kanazawa. The text was quite dense which proved challenging, the timeline seemed to have skipped over some details as some seemed contrary to each other. One thing for sure was that the development of gold leaf making in Kanazawa was a much more recent development that the image the city would like to portray. Though that was true for many other things in Japan. It's easy to forget that many traditions, especially those outside the home provinces were not formed till the Edo period.
As the foundation of commerce and wealth, gold leaf making was of course a restricted trade in the past, controlled by the shogun.
Toward the end of the Sengoku period Toyotomi granted the lords of Kanazawa the right to create silver leafs. The records weren't clear but gold leaf making in Kanazawa likely began at the same time. In the early 1800s gold leaf artisans were brought from Kyoto to supply the material needed to rebuild the burnt down castle buildings. After that there were several periods where gold leaf making was banned and this was where the descriptions get vague, but the implication was that the craft continued in some capacity through out.
During the Meji period gold leaf making grew and out of a need to control quality of gold leaf produced in Kanazawa an association was formed and the city began to dominate gold leaf production in Japan.
The growth brought by industrialization went into decline with onset of war, luxury items were severely curtailed and the craft would not see its rebirth till the 1960s. Even then with rise of foreign imports the gold leaf making trade continues to struggle.
My impression was that Kanazawa became renowned for gold leafs more as a matter of being the lone survivor in Japan than any extroadinary heritage, and its image was somewhat a modern invention.
The next section introduced visitors to the process of gold leaf making. Where rough sheets of gold was bound in leather and special paper then beaten under a machine repeatedly, the bundle moved and adjusted by the hand of the craftsman. Then the gold leaf would be trimmed, rebound and put back under the machine. Beating, trimming and rebeating until the gold leafs were so thin a light breath sent ripples across its surface; yet the thin sheet holds, exhibiting the remarkable strength and elasticity of gold.
There were also interactive displays to show the weight of gold compared to other materials. Some explanation of the different metal mix of gold leafs and their colour. Some had more silver, others a little copper, brass, zinc.
The edible gold leafs added aplenty to every kind of food here were ones without addition of copper. Gold alone was very stable and when digested would simply go through the digestive systems without being absorbed by the body.
The third hall hosted some rare items utilizing gold leafs. A golden threaded Noh play kimono, statues of Buddha laid with gold and of course various lacquerwares.
The museum was comparably small, perhaps a little light on details. I would have liked to have seen some videos of how gold is applied in various crafts.
After this it's whirlwind tour time. Kanazawa had so many places to see and time was compressed due to the cherry blossoms.
First stop was the Kenrokuen again, having been foiled by the rain yesterday.
Gate keep and sakura
The sky was clear and people crowded into the teahouse row and garden. It was early 11am, not quite lunch time but thinking about the schedule it be more efficient if I grabbed something now. It meant skipping the original sushi train lunch plan at Katamachi but I've never had reservations about trading food for time.
I got a yakisoba from one of the festival stalls. Just as it's not a market without a grilled sausage in Taiwan, in Japan it's not quite a festival without having some yakisoba.
Yakisoba and sakura
I had my little own Hanami. Sitting on a bench beneath a blue sky and pink blossoms. The heavy taste in the mouth. People walked here and there, some had sticks of cornknobs or squids, other had the all famous Kanazawa gold leaf wrapped soft cream.
Picnic under the sakura
Back at the Shima there were discount coupons to the teahouses outside the garden, of which I had taken a few. 80 or 90Y off the price of a soft cream, and I opted for the kind with a sprinkle of gold and not one wrapped with an entire leaf. Gold itself had no taste. It's the novelty factor. Looks good in the photos.
Gold leaf soft cream
I took a brisk stroll across the garden, looking at reflections of cherry blossoms on the surface of the pond and streams.
Kenrokuen
Kenorkuen
It was not as large as Korakuen in Okayama, but much more intricate. With small twists and turns and groves of trees and moss. It might be a benefit of being situated on top of a hill and able to take advantage of the elevation differences. The scenery was ever changing as one wanders through the grounds, as opposed to Korakuen which was very spacious and open.
Descending the slope to the 21st century museum, I took a bike toward the west side where the old samurai district called Nagamachi was.
The main thoroughfare between the 21st century museum and the old samurai district was Korinbo/Katamachi, Kanazawa's main retail precinct with several department stores and shopping complexes packed in close proximity. I biked around Tokyu Square, the road followed along the Kuratuki Canal, one of several canals that once supplied the city with water, for drinking, for fighting fires, for driving mills and machines. The many canals were vital to the city's development up till early modern times.
Then turning further west, I continued till the road ended after crossing another canal, the Onoshou Canal. Right at the intersection was the Kanazawa Shinise Memorial Hall. Shinise roughly means old store. An establishment with a history, a shop or trade that has been in business for generations.
The Shinise Memorial was once a medicine store belonging to the Nakaya family. The family first established a traditional medicine shop back in 1579 and was given the honor of supplying the local daimyo with various remedies. The shop has since been moved a few times, with the current merchant house built in 1878 in honor of Emperor Meiji's visit and later donated to the city in 1987.
Shinise memorial
The place retained much of the original layout and feel of the Meiji era, with very wide storefront with shutter doors that could open the house to the outside.
The entrance was via the side through a small gate. There's an 100Y fee. An amount that might as well be a donation when an average temple might ask for 300-400Y. Not that it mattered being covered by the one day pass.
The middle aged man stamped my day pass (which after 3 or 5 could be traded in for a small souvenir) and welcomed me with a smile and explained that everything can be photographed.
I was not the only visitor; there were footsteps upstairs. Though for the time I was alone on the ground floor.
The tour path began at the store front area where customers would have come up to ask for a remedy for their ailments. The store area itself was on raised tatami but customers could approach and wait at the doma, the dirt floor before the raised area. The doma actually goes all the way around the house so people could access most of the ground floor without needing to remove their shoes.
On the shelves were packets of drug prescriptions named for powerful sounding than efficacy. Kidney and heart pills, pill that cures ten thousand illnesses. There's a strange number of Kougentan, a secret recipe that roughly translated meant mixing of essences.
Old medicine shop front
On the wall hung many other labels of divers drugs, the symptoms they treated and boastful claims of efficacy. The simple design and bold lettering declared the simple and hopeful period they were from.
The next room was the medicine store where prescriptions would be grounded and mixed with the various tools displayed.
Around the back was the guest room where guests were welcomed with hot tea from the pot hung over the hearth. Now doubling as a makeshift display room for shelves of Kaga temari large and small. Yarnballs, a local traditional craft. Traditionally they were toys for children, now they also serve as talismans for good fortunes. Intricate woven balls of brightly coloured silk strings, the balls glistened in the light much akin to christmas tree baubles. Some were small, the size that fit comfortably in one's hand, some big, the size of a bowling ball that were assuredly for show than use.
Going upstairs. The level above was devoid of fixtures or decorations. Rows of glass displays presented the works of other shinise of Kanazawa. Prints, dye houses, gold and lacquer works. Candy shops; behind a large glass cubicle sat a dense ikebana where the stem and petal of every flower were crafted of sugar.
This is all candy
The shinises were proud, but through the dull, almost historical displays, there was also a trace of sadness.
At an angle opposite the shinise museum was the Maeda Tosanokami Shiryokan Museum, the Museum for the Records of the Maeda Tosanokami family. The family was a chief retainer of the daimyo (actually direct sibling, but I'm not sure if it's a branch family), one of the Eight Family of Kaga. The Eight Family was so called as the most important retainer family of the daimyo holding the highest offices and positions in the Kaga domain, each receiving an annual stipend of over 10k koku, the foremost Honda family even receives over 50k. The Maeda Tosanokami family received a stipend of 11k koku for most of the family's time as one of the Eight. Through the generations accumulated huge stores of valuable documents and items. These are now made available in the museums on a rotating basis. The collections so large that even with 4 rotations a year it would take years for all the items to be shown.
Maeda museum
The reception stamped my pass then to my puzzlement, began tearing off the stamp collection. There's a souvenir for collecting three steamps, she said.
I had thought five stamps were needed, did this mean there was a bonus one at three stamps? But then why was she tearing the stamps off.
Perhaps noticing my confusion, she stopped and asked if I planned on visiting more museums. To which I answered that yes, I was planning on visiting the Noh museum and Suzuki Museum.
Oh, was the reaction. She further explained that there were different souvenirs for 3 or 5 stamps, and if I wanted to I could exchange the stamps now, otherwise I can wait till I had collected 5 of them. I preferred the small notepad one got for 5 stamps. The lady found some tape and helped put the stamp card back.
The first floor housed the permanent exhibition introducing the Maeda family. No family showcase can go without a set of armour and sword of course, and here they were displayed in utmost honour and respect, flanked on all walls by the family's treasured art works.
The back of the first floor opens up into a garden viewing room, a space with some benches that offered an excellent view of the Japanese garden. I dwelled here not. The room was walled in with glass and the aircon exceedingly weak making the place rather stuffy. The garden while beautiful, was not something of spectacular worth beyond what I have seen elsewhere.
The second floor was where things became interesting. The articles of the museum, because of their nature of being items passed down within the family, were not necessarily glamorous paintings or ceramics; books and scrolls that were near impossible to read were a plenty, not only because of the florid calligraphy but also the use of old formal prose. The contents, with some helpful translating to more modern Japanese vernacular, actually were quite illuminating and as I would find out later, helped provide much needed perspective into the next few attractions I was going to visit.
The rotating exhibition at the time of my visit was given a spirited title, Kaga Domain's High Ranking Samurai, Income's Uses and Expenditures, Money is Needed!
In the Edo period a daimyo kept the service of many retainers. Each were given a stipend measured in bushels of rice, the currency of the day. A low level officer might receive a couple hundred bushels while a high level retainer like the the Maeda received tens of thousands.
The Kaga domain was renowned for being a domain of a million koku, giving some idea of the economic powers and the number of retainers that could be afforded.
In the days a koku of rice was roughly the amount of rice needed to feed one person for a year. By that measure even a few tens or hundreds of bushels sounds like a large fortune. And it probably was in comparison to the common farmers toiling in distant fields who were one bad harvest away from starvation, but for the samurais the stipends by no means guaranteed a life of luxury or even one without worrying about making ends meet.
As a samurai and a member of the ruling class, certain expectations were required if not by law then by customs. One was the number of clerks, guards and other servants one was expected to keep; the daimyo had high level retainers who themselves had retainers, a pyramids of people serving ones above.
A samurai's position also demanded a level of fineries, lacquers, kimonos, other exotic items for ceremonies and parties, all of which had to be bought and kept up to latest fashion.
Then there were other expectations such as horses, armours and gears one had to make available for one's lord at a moment's call.
Worse still, rice was a poor means of storing or transporting wealth, one could not reasonably cart about and pay with hundreds of bags of rice so a samurai had to convert his stipend into cash with the merchant class who charged huge margins for the service.
What seemed like initially immense fortunes quickly dimished into mere pittances and many samurais struggled to make ends meet. Of course compared to the rural villagers the samurais, even the lowest ranked ones, could hardly be called poor. But many must have wondered about the lavished life their urban artisan and merchant compatriots lived.
Coins, ledgers. There were letters too, of mundane communique between the lord and his retainers. Written in prose whose meaning could only be glimpsed through modern translations.
Japanese today is quite subtle, often a person's meaning is couched in coded words that takes care to pick out. These letters however are on a whole different level of formality and one must be excused for coming to entirely different understanding at first reading.
Together both museums took near an hour to go through at a steady pace without pause.
From here I walked north along the waterway. The area was the so called samurai district where those who served the lord used to live and the houses from those days remained well preserved.
Samurai district
The walls were a yellowy earthern colour, unique as I have seen in Japan thus far. The impression was softer and richer, refined, markedly different from the ashen white that defined the image of traditional urban landscape.
The streets were narrow, enough to let two palanquins pass by. One could imagine samurais of rival clans squaring off in the narrow confines and rounding the block to surround their opponents.
Some of the houses had signs requesting considerations while others had been converted to workshops or tea houses selling souvenirs and sweets.
There were three main attractions in the area. The first was the Nomura residence, belonging to a samurai of note on a stipend of 1100 koku. When I got there a tour group of european happened to be lining up outside waiting to go in. I continued on, to visit on the way back with hopefully less crowd.
The second was the Takada House formerly belonging to a mid ranked samurai on a 550 koku stipend. The main residence was long gone and only the garden remained, and a long house gate restored and maintained by the Kanazawa city. Given there was only really one building with two rooms, the city perhaps decided charging any paltry fee was more trouble than it's worth and left the place open for all to wander freely.
Takada House
There's only the long house and the curator cleverly made the place be about the servants instead of the masters. The long house gate had the gate at its centre. On one side was a stable and store room and the other was the servant's waiting room, a space of a few tatami with a firepit at the centre for staying warm in winter and preparing their own meals.
The servant's job was to see to their master and accompany them when their master go to their offices and attend to their lord. When receiving their master they were to bring out their master's shoes and throw it before them. Neither rude nor disrespectful, it was a show of being in awe of their master's superiority.
A samurai had a duty to maintain soldiers for his lord, the numbers differed based on the period and stipend, as an example, a samurai of 500 koku had to provide 2 swordsmen, 1 spearman, 1 archer and 7 servants. So though on the surface a stipend seems a lot, the whole household suffered in poverty.
The garden of the former residence was of little value, only a small pond and few shrubberies.
The third attraction was another block away, called the Ashigaru Shiryokan Museum. A set of two small houses of the lowest rank samurais on just 10 to 25 koku. Although there were no obligations on them having to provide additional servants and soldiers so they might not have been much worse off than a low to middle samurai.
Each house belonged to a different ashigaru household, Takanishi and Kiyomizu, each standing on their own plot of land separated by low hedges and small gardens. They were larger than I had expected from warriors one rank away from peasant; supposedly Kaga's wealth meant they could afford such spacious housing, in the capital an ashigaru would live in cramped rows of adjoining townhouses.
Ashigaru house
Roughly divided into two rows of three areas that formed the formal areas and living areas, the house felt spacious and comfortable. On the left was the entrance way and hallway, depending on the layout there may be a small room with a small hearth, perhaps as a waiting room. Toward the back was the formal room which opens up onto the engawa adjoining the garden, granting beautiful bright vistas. On the right side was the kitchen, the chanoma (room for tea, but perhaps closer to dining/living space), the private storeroom or sleeping room.
The rooms were of fair size, the windows and engawa let in plenty of sunlight, the air was fresh and cheery.
One of the houses was unattended and was mostly empty except for a few signs explaining the lives of the ashigaru. The role of the ashigaru in the strongly hierarchical edo society placed them squarely on the lowest rung of the ladder, serving the most mundane tasks of the bureacracy. A household of six nominally would need six koku of rice alone, not to mention other expenses such as soy, salt, wine and other basic necessities. With just 20 koku over half of the income would be spent on food alone, add in other household expenditures then they would barely scrape by. Ashigaru often took up other occupations and produced handicrafts at home to supplement their income.
The other house had a small office. The two houses had no entry fee so there was no need for a ticket window, the office probably served as an equipment store and prepare room for when there are arranged guides, otherwise I saw little need for an office. Having an attendant did mean they could furnish the house with scrolls and chests and other items to show how the place might have looked in the past.
In the living room five table trays with plates were laid out, ready for a family meal. The kitchen was stocked with pots and urns. The place felt lived in, cozy, and would not be surprised if some man in kimono walked out from behind the screens and welcomed visitors to his humble abode.
After the ashigaru house I return to the Nomura residence. The group of westerners had not left yet, either that or another group have followed on their heels, for the place was full.
The Nomura residence once belonged to a middle-high ranking samurai whose descendants later sold it to a wealthy merchant. The new owner kept the place well maintained and furthered the house and garden with his own touches.
Nomura house
It was not large, or perhaps it was a trick of the mind with so many people in the house that it could not be helped but feel crowded.
There was an entry fee of 550Y, a little on the high side. But given the other two were free it balances out and I shouldn't be critical. Immediately upon stepping up the entrance, a suit of armour belonging to one of the Nomura ancestors welcomed guests in very "this is a samurai residence" sort of artifical way.
Round the short corridor with the main attraction of the house the L shaped room that opened onto the pond and garden. The garden was rated as one of the best gardens in Japan, on the same list as Adachi Museum in Shimane and Rikyu Palace in Kyoto, and the house as a whole awarded two stars by the Michelin guide.
Not sure if the house and garden lived up to such high praise.
In anycase the garden was a water feature garden, with the engawa extending directly over the koi pond. The shores were densely planted with moss and short pines, a few well placed stone lanterns provided depth to the scene. A small stone bridge crossed to an island and had a sign asking visitors to stay out. The garden felt a little messy, the barren branches sticking out through pine needles. It might look well in summer.
Nomura house garden
In the centre of the house was the Jodan no Ma, a special room reserved for hosting the daimyo. The joist and struts featured intricately carved wooden panels, the fusuma doors painted with mountains rivers by a renowned Kaga painter from the Kano school.
Toward the back the house connects with the old kura (storage house), with thick mud bricks and heavy doors designed to protect the contents within from fires that were all too common in the edo era. The kura has been converted into the Onikawa Bunko, a library holding a collection of historical arts and items of the Nomura family. There were many fine katana swords, wall scrolls and other precious objects that gave great insights into the life of a former high ranking samurai, and elevated the collection to one of great cultural significance.
There was a narrow stairway at the side of the house. It was open to the outside at its corner, where a delicately arranged water sprout was placed. Water pooled on the first level before spilling out the spout in a gentle trickle. Moss and fern covered the stone's surfaces, and to celebrate spring, a length of bamboo with small branch of flower inserted at its middle, was placed across the pool as a bridge and viewing pavilion. The small insignificant decor held my attention more so than the main garden.
The stairs led up to the tea room. The upper floor was added by the merchant to enjoy the garden and highly recommended by many. Access was limited to customers who ordered the tea and sweets set, and there was no time for such enjoyments.
I rounded off the samurai district and its side alleyway. No time could be spared to the workshops and souvenir shops that dotted the area. In hindsight I wondered whether I should have moved Hikone to give Kanazawa the time it deserved.
Corner of nagamachi
Anyhow the whirlwind tour continued. I biked through Katamachi down the Tatemachi shopping street, a pedestrian shopping street spawning off the main thoroughfare in Katamachi. It was the foremost fashion and retail precinct in central Hokuriku, full of trendy shop fronts and and modern signages.
Katamachi
It might be the day of the week (being a Monday where many shops closes), the street did not feel as lively as what ought to be the busiest street in Kanazawa, and I even missed the only animate in town because of how inconspicuous it was. Not even a wall plastered with moe girls as one could expect in Tokyo.
The street laid in a shallow north west west to south east east axis. It took me across the south end of the central district and I circled up the east side back toward the museum district.
On the southern end of the museum district was the D.T. Suzuki museum. The bike station was outside a Lawson on the side of the road, still some distance to the museum which was tucked away behind a large parking lot through a mangle of small streets. Signage was poor and I had to check google map several times to confirm I was on the right path.
I had not heard of Suzuki before this trip. Philosopher, zen master, he was apparently quite well known and responsible for advancing zen teachings in the west. Born in Ishikawa prefecture and a celebrated son of the Kanazawa.
The museum was built in the suburb where Suzuki was born and designed to comemorate Suzuki's life and teachings and provide a place of meditation and thoughts.
True to its zen roots the museum's exterior was plain and dangerously easy to miss. Simple ashen concrete with well defined right angles. The side facing the courtyard was walled with slit poles drawing inspiration from the slit windows of Higashichaya. Upon entering the hallway was dimly lit, yet where there were windows sunlight shone through brightly, casting long dark shadows.
Suzuki memorial
The museum was included in the museum pass, otherwise entry fee was 300Y. A small folder containing note papers was given to the visitors to take notes and record their thoughts. And I got another stamp on my pass.
Taking photos on the inside was not allowed. The galleries mostly held original works of Suzuki and various quotes of his. The photo ban was most likely to avoid people distracting others' contemplation than any copyright rules.
At each section of the gallery a small info sheet was available for visitors to add to their folders and their knowledge of Suzuki's perspectives on life.
A brief interruption came when a man approached with a pad for a quick survey of the origin of each visitor.
The halls at last opened up onto the main water garden feature which the museum complex was built around.
Square in shape, the pool reflected the world about. At its center the room of contemplation rippled, the tower of its roof rising above, breaking the confines of the walled space.
The contemplation room was open on all sides, allowing the cool breeze in and visitors to sit freely and inspect their thoughts in the surrounding water.
Contemplation pool
It's doubtful how many visitors use the room for its intended purposes. Of the six or seven people I met during my visit, most, me included, were content to grab a few photos of the reflecting pool and continue on with their day.
I left without feeling tranquil nor insightful. A museum on zen required time I did not have.
Next stop was the Noh museum, bringing me back to the centre of the museum district.
Once again the museum did not particularly stand out and its mostly glass modern construction might be mistaken for a fashion retail. It sits on the main thoroughfare on the same block as the 21st century museum.
I got the final stamp here and traded the collection for a notepad. The Noh museum consists of two floors, with the ground floor area sharing the same space as the reception foyer, fenced off visually only by a tall panel and display cases.
Noh is the traditional Japanese performance for the aristocracy. It mirrors the kabuki which was performance for the commoners. Kabuki is loud, full of expression and outlandish stage props. Noh in contrast is incredibly restrained. A Noh stage is always the same. A stage with posts in four corners reminiscent of kaguya stages of shinto shrines. The backdrop of the stage is always a pine tree, and the entry bridgeway to the stage's left (from the audience's direction) is lined with three small pines. The right of the stage sat a band that played traditional instruments while the actors performed on the relatively small stage.
The biggest difference, was that kabuki actors wore colorful makeups allowing them full range of facial expressions, while noh actors wore masks that covered the entire face. In noh, emotions were conveyed through voice, movements and clever positioning of the mask alone. In a Japanology episode, it described noh as acting through movements of the feet. The way the actor lifted his feet, the pace which he stepped, the angle he placed it down. Hesitance, sorrow, excitement, tension, they could all be conveyed by simply looking at the actor's lower body alone.
Patronized by the ruling class, Noh has throughout the ages sought to distinguish itself from the latest entertainment of the commoners by holding fervently to its original form, resisting changes and continued to be performed in its ancient style as stalwarts of tradition.
The noh play in Kanazawa is of the Hosho school, said to be more abstract in its performances. It later developed into its own style called Kaga Hosho, which became something for even common people after the Meiji restoration abolished the samurai class. There's a claim that in Kanazawa, noh falls from the heavens, in other words the art was so popular even the common gardener or carpenters sing noh chants while they worked in high places. A doubtful claim; the city positions itself as the centre of traditional culture, second only to the ancient capital and I would not be surprised by a few hearsay exaggerations.
The first section of the floor introduced noh plays. Taking inspiration from the noh stage the area was separated from the foyer by a pine tree wall and framed by four columns, each having the name and purpose on stage.
The column at the back and left, by the entry bridgeway was named the shitebashira 仕手柱, main character's pillar, for it was the direction where the main character would make his entry.
The column at the back and right was named the fuebashira 笛柱, literally flute pillar, for it was near where the flute players sits.
The column at the front and left was named the metsukebashira 目付け柱, the sighting pillar, for it was an important point of reference for the actor whose vision was limited by the mask. By anchoring himself relatively to the pillar, the actor can position himself to the correct spot on stage.
The column at the front and right was named the wakibashira 脇柱, the secondary character's pillar, for where the secondary character would sit on stage while the main actor performs.
Around all sides were wait high glass displays showing various items used in Noh plays. Flutes, item of clothing, small props, masks. A few showed tools and methods used to craft the masks.
At the centre of the display area was a miniature model of the noh stage to give a visitor a better idea of what one looked like.
Noh stage model
Generally speaking the information offered was rudimentary and did not offer a proper introduction to Noh plays. It felt simultaneously too shallow while assuming visitors already had some notion of what Noh is. To be fair to the museum Noh is not an easy concept to convey and I still grapple with what it is despite having read a few books on it. Noh has the honor of being the oldest surviving form of theatre, a tradition that dates back to the 14th century and far removed from modern sensibilities. The music is rhymetic and slow, the speech difficult to understand, the tales draws on ancient folklores and historical figures, the performances are abstract and requires familiarity by the audience for understanding.
At least it is not court music which is more monotonous than water dripping down a bamboo pipe; at least the later is soothing.
There was an experience area, visitors were welcomed to put on a Noh mask and dress with the assistance of the attendants. The two old ladies there were incredibly enthusiastic and excited by the prospect of a visitor. Clearly they haven't seen many guests that day or any at all.
Initially I declined, not wanting to go through the troubles. I looked at the clothing and masks by myself. The masks, the surface incredibly smooth and seemingly made of clay and weighty.
"This looks heavy," I commented.
"Oh no, not at all," the ladies replied. They seized the opening, "Here try holding it." They picked one up and presented it to me.
It was lighter than even my lightest estimate. It was made of wood, very very light wood, as though a hefty wind would take it into the air. The mask was almost 7 or 8 mm thick yet weighed maybe a third of what I felt wood of the size should.
"Wouldn't you like to try putting it on, come, we'll dress you."
They nudged me onto the raised platform and presented a choice of two Noh dresses. One orange and another a darker indigo. I chose the orange one.
The dress was not hard to put on, more of a coat then a kimono. When it came to the mask however there were some confusion.
Before this my Japanese had served me well, but here there was a single word that I could not understand and could not guess from its context. I thought they wanted me to do something with the mask but not to put it on.
After a few back and forths the lady finally performed a posture herself. She bowed. Of course, I felt a little silly at myself. In Noh masks were sacred, said to possess spirits themselves and one had to first pay respect before putting them on.
I held the mask face up and gave it a bow, and finally was allowed to put on the mask.
Vision within the mask was severely limited. Coupled with the lack of glasses I was barely aware of my surroundings. I was at the mercy of the two ladies. Who happily led me through a few different poses and paces.
This pose means sadness. They would help position my arms and head. This pose means laugh. And so on.
It is another aspect of paradoxical Japan, where the everyday reserved body languages are traded for exaggerated theatrics.
They helped take a few photos in Noh wear then helped me out of the dress. They apologized for being insistent, which I replied that I had fun too.
The second floor was more museum like. A quiet space with walls of dark velvet set displays. Various masks and Noh outfits hung on the walls. Masks of gods, demons, jesters, courtesans, ministers, monks. The proportions were doll like, yet life like. The gods (some anyway) were kind, the demons frightening. The ministers were stupid and the courtesans sensual.
Noh mask
The various texts outlining the development of Kaga Hosho Noh is a little hard to understand, mostly speaking of lineages and important Noh performers that guided the development of Noh in the region. It's not clear what distinguishes Kaga Noh from regular Noh, but it was emphasized that it is quite distinct and is recognized as an intangible cultural heritage.
Noh museum
Overall a good fun experience. Even if I did not have the pass, the Noh dress up experience and the numerous masks in display was well worth the 300Y fee.
The Noh museum concludes my whirlwind tour and I was free to make use of what's left of the remaining sunlight.
There was the 21st century museum. Perhaps the most well known tourist attraction after the Higashi Chaya district. The museum had a series of outdoor arts that was very iconic, such as the room beneath a swimming pool such that it looked as though people walked on the bottom of the pool, a giant dog…
I was wandering through its outer halls looking for the ticket booth, while contemplating whether to spend time here or to go check out the castle grounds, when I was yelled at by some staff. Apparently there's no single entrance to the restricted area, there's several hallways and they were all restricted and to pass through required checking one's ticket. There was no way to cut across the circular museum directly to the ticket booth; the only way was to circle all the way around.
None too pleased getting yelled at for an honest mistake, I decided to skip the museum. The sun was beginning to set and outdoor sculptures are better viewed in a full sun.
21st century museum
I ascended the cherry blossomed slope and crossed the bridge into the castle, properly this time. The castle keep was long gone and only the restored walls and barracks and storehouses stood as testaments to the once mighty lords of the Kaga domain. It was easily one of the largest castle grounds I have seen, exceeding that of Himeji or Nagoya castle. Because of its hilltop position, the grounds were formed of several natural layers.
Ramp leading up to the teahouse row
The bridge from the garden acted as a backdoor for after a double gate it opens directly onto the main San-no-Maru courtyard.
Castle gate
In the distance was the raised Ni-no-Maru inner courtyard encircled by a tall walls and wide moat. On the left the long wall stretched to connect with the inner hon-maru area where the castle keep would have stood hundreds years ago. Not all of the walls have been restored which made the courtyard seemingly divided at random places.
The storehouses open to visits have now closed, and the visitor centre too. I wandered without aim. The visitor centre held a restaurant/cafe, a relaxation room with wide open glass walls for people to sit and view the wide open castle ground. The history of the castle was plotted out on a time axis along one wall. On another the TV was playing a very well made Kanazawa tourism ad promoting the colourful and varied four seasons of the city.
Outside the visitor centre was a short patchwork segment of wall. It was specially constructed using four different ways of wall building, used for different walls throughout the castle. Course irregular rocks used in wall foundations; square cut rocks for the upper walls and gate buildings; there were tiled walls; another was plaster on wooden frame and reed straws.
Castle moat
If time permitted, I would have liked to have gone on one of the rock wall touring route suggested by the castle guide pamphlet to check out all the different applications of wall buildings. As it was all I had time for was a short walk around the inner courtyards and snapping a few photos of the closed storehouses and the gun slits in the walls.
There was something magical about the white facade of buildings and walls in the sunlight before twilight, as if seeing into the past itself. A glorious melancholy of witnessing a past of lords and honor.
The plan for the evening was to go back to Higashi Chaya for some night time touring.
I was running only on excitement at this point, barely holding together after a whole day's walking and biking. In times like this I tend to start making mistakes, the brain unable to pause to consider things in full for weariness would overtake it.
Too tired to find a restaurant, I went back to Katamachi where I saw a McDonald earlier in the day. As it had become by now, McDonald was my go to quick fix when I could not be bothered to work out where to eat.
There were no specialties menus on, which was disappointing. I ordered the teriyaki meal then went upstairs and found a seat. Glad to be finally sitting down, I grinned abit to have understood the staff asking if I was eating in or that was all I'm ordering.
McDonald, always a safe haven
I had some trouble finding the Korinbo bike station, partly due to poor marking on the map and partly because visibility was poor at dusk. Eventually I located it behind the Daiwa department store.
The ride to Higachi-Chaya was long. I wanted to get there before Hakuichi closed, determined now to get the ukiyoe gold foil print.
Pass the bridge and down the small street, I stopped in the courtyard at the entrance of the Chaya district and where Hakuichi was located. It was closed.
Tomorrow then.
The warm glow of the lanterns cast no shadows in the murky blue surrounds. The lights of the shops and teahouses shone through the slits windows like portals to a fanciful world.
Chaya at night
Some of the teahouses here still operated at night and it's said that when the night deepens the street becomes filled with music and cheer. Can't say I feel the liveliness. There were plenty of tourists enjoying the atmosphere of the old district in the evening, it was one of a still pond of serenity.
After some time I headed back to the hotel reluctantly.
I stopped by the bike station to swap the bike, then I realized that I should have also swapped the bike on my way to the chaya district. As it was I had exceeded the 20min free period and would be charged for a small fee.
I was smarting about the mistake while riding, which was probably why I then took a wrong turn at the Musashigatsuji intersection. I did not notice at first, but after a few minutes of the area turning more and more residential, I pulled out google map and saw my mistake. As a result it took me another 10 minutes before I got back to the hotel.
After a shower things began to feel a bit better. It was near 8 and my stomach was starting to feel empty.
Thankfully I had a long list of candidates and knew precisely what I needed. Vegetables.
Ever since discovering champione noodles back in Hakata, I have found a balanced diet is the key to keeping the body from getting upset. Vegetables aren't the easiest thing to find on the eat out menu but there was one in the restaurant street in the station. Number 8 Ramen. A place the specialized in heaping plenty of vegetables on top of a bowl of ramen, much like Ringer Hut's champion noodles.
It was a good thing the hotel was so close, if it had been any further I might not have worked up the will to venture out. Past evening rush hour the station was not terribly busy and the gift shops were closing up. It took me a full circle before finding Number 8 Ramen.
Drum gate lit up
I ordered the yasai ramen (green vege ramen) which claimed to have half the daily recommended greens intake. It's about 640Y, on the cheaper end for a bowl of ramen, at least compared to the big cities. Ramen might generally be cheaper here.
Number 8 ramen
The place was half full. While I was lost in the restaurant streets I noticed that other than the sushi shop and izakaya, the rest were generally not packed. The former attracts more tourists and the later probably more office workers, leaving the remainder a middling unnotable bunch.
There was a giant logo on the wall and slogans promoting the history of the shop. It was nice and clean, the lighting bright. The decor was akin to Ringer Hut or similar non-traditional ramen shops that aims for a more family friendly atmosphere.
The noodle itself was more salty than Ringer Hut. It was a ramen after all, still much lighter than regular ramens. There was a generous helping of cabbages and beansprouts as promised, a small slice of meat and nice white noodle of above average thickness. Nothing eye opening, just good solid taste.
Ramen with plenty of vegetables
Satisfied, I finally went back to the hotel and concludes the long day.
← Kansai Maigo – Day 1
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Tokyo Maigo 東京迷子
San'in Maigo 山陰迷子
Hida Maigo 飛騨迷子
Koyo Maigo 紅葉迷子
Suitouro Maigo 水燈路迷子
Onsen Maigo 溫泉迷子
Kanto Maigo 關東迷子
Kansai Maigo 關西迷子
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Penned by one of the leading writers of suspense in the early 20th Century, Gaslight made its mark as a chilling psychological thriller on stage and screen in the 1940's.
Now a revival of Patrick Hamilton's play Gaslight is back in theatres and opened at Birmingham's New Alexandra Theatre for the start of its UK tour, which will continue on to venues including Brighton's Theatre Royal and Richmond Theatre near London.
While this production is still set in Victorian London, it has also been injected with touches of humour to adapt it to a modern audience. It ends up making the play a mixture of many things but not one or the other. It's part mystery, part comedy and lashings of relationship melodrama.
It's in a gloriously lavish sitting room that we find young downtrodden wife Bella. Former EastEnders' actress Kara Tointon is at the centre of the action as this frightened and confused woman who thinks her mind is playing tricks on her. She's tormented by things going missing and notices how the gaslight lamps dim suddenly at night when her husband Jack ( Rupert Young from BBC1's Merlin) isn't around.
It's no easy feat playing the Bella role as it was made famous in the 1944 movie version by legendary Ingrid Bergman, but it helps that this stage version of Gaslight is slightly different to the film. There is still plenty of drawn out tension though, for those fond of the movie.
Director Anthony Banks also makes as much use out of the silent moments as he does those that are scripted. The long drawn out pouring of milk into a glass, the chiming of a clock and even the dropping of sugar cubes into tea all are extended to add suspense.
Tointon, who has become as well known for her stage roles as TV characters after parts including Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion is well cast with both an air of vulnerability and an edge of determination. Her clipped pre-war accent makes her reminiscent of Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter.
Tointon is still only 33 but has become so in demand since winning Strictly Come Dancing in 2010 with Artem Chigvintzev that she can be seen somewhere at most times and is currently also starring as a jazz singer in new ITV drama The Halcyon. This role will only add to that buzz around her.
Rupert Young from Merlin with Kara Tointon in Gaslight.
There's more to just Tointon as alongside her is veteran actor Keith Allen as police detective Rough, who is thrust into Bella's life to shed light on her Victorian home and reveal a past of murder and missing jewels.
Allen breathes life and soul into the drama after an initial slow start. From the moment he enters the story, after about 20 minutes, the tempo speeds up, as do the comedy elements. Tointon may be good but Allen is the one that lights up the stage, but that's partly because he's blessed with such a vibrant character in the plot.
It's ultimately Tointon and Allen's chemistry together, albeit sometimes tongue in cheek, that makes this production work so well.
Young, playing husband Jack, is a world away from his gallant Sir Leon character in TV show Merlin as a brutish bully. He has a real presence on stage but then he's no stranger to theatre, previously receiving praise for his role in in Cole Porter's High Society at the Old Vic as well as starring in While The Sun Shines for Bath Theatre Royal.
Hamilton wrote this play (called Angel Street in America) in 1938 when it was groundbreaking for its time. He also went on to write thriller Rope, which became one of Alfred Hitchcock's classic movies.
For those familiar with Rope, this story has those same elements of tension and made such an impact at the time of its creation that it also spawned the term "gaslighting" when referring to a form of psychological abuse.
But it is also very much a play of its time and is in some ways a little dated. It's interesting that this production has decided to err on the side of lightheartedness rather than go for a deep, dark chilling noir.
With a strong cast, a memorable set and some tense moments, Gaslight is an enjoyable and interesting thriller of old, even if it doesn't have the shocks and red herrings that modern audiences have become so accustomed to.
Tickets cost from £18 - £52 and are available from the ATG theatre website.
March 14 – 18 - New Theatre, Cardiff.
Gaslight is produced by Ambassador Theatre Group and Smith and Brant Theatricals.


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Asteroid Set to Shave Earth
Home » Asteroid Set to Shave Earth
By Richard Macey from the Sydney Morning Herald
In In the News
Asteroid Set to Shave Earth2006-06-142019-08-26https://fairsociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/fair-society-logo.pngFAIR Society - Future Asteroid Interception Researchhttps://fairsociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2004_xp14.jpg200px200px
Three nights of skywatching by an Australian astronomer have confirmed predictions that an asteroid almost half a kilometre wide will miss the Earth on Monday by 430,000 kilometres.
However, it would still be "one of the largest objects to be observed to pass this close to the Earth," said Rob McNaught, an astronomer at Siding Spring, near Coonabarabran.
If the predictions had been wrong, and the asteroid, dubbed 2004 XP14, hit the Earth, "you would be talking about very serious consequences," he said. The astronomer and his colleague, Gordon Garradd, run the Southern Hemisphere's only search for asteroids that pose a threat to life on Earth.
Funded by NASA, and involving the University of Arizona and the Australian National University, the study uses a telescope that snaps four pictures of the same area of the sky every hour. A computer then sifts through the images looking for objects that have changed position.
Mr. McNaught spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights tracking XP14, confirming the asteroid, discovered in 2004, had no chance of sparking a bad day for Earth any time this century.
American radio astronomers will use Mr. McNaught's observations to refine their plans to bounce radar signals off the asteroid next week to determine its exact size and composition. So little is known of the tiny world that astronomers estimate it is probably about 400 metres wide, but could be twice that size.
The astronomer at Sydney Observatory, Nick Lomb, said XP14 would make its closest approach at 2 pm on Monday.
Dr. Lomb said that if the asteroid struck "it could cause major damage over a whole continent."
The search by Mr. McNaught and Mr. Garradd had discovered at least 113 asteroids and more than 20 comets, but none that posed a threat to Earth.
A 9½ Hour Reprieve …
A missile with the devastating power of more than 10,000 nuclear bombs detonating simultaneously missed us by mere hours on Monday, July 3, 2006—and yet it barely made the headlines.
In less time than it takes paint to dry, a catastrophe the likes of which mankind has never seen whisked passed our planet receiving comparatively little attention as to what would have happened had it not missed. If this sounds alarmist then consider the following facts.
A large asteroid with the innocuous dub of 2004 XP14 missed Earth by 430,000 kilometres, scientists reported. That may not sound close to most of us, but consider that this giant meteor is traveling at 12.6 kilometres a second (or to put that in more concrete terms, from New York to London in just 7.3 minutes), which translates into an impact time, were it on course, of only 9.5 hours.
If you consider, too, that a meteor just 60 meters wide would cause an explosion equivalent to 1,000 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, then the XP14, estimated to be up to 800 meters across, would cause exponentially greater damage—in short, it would devastate an entire continent and wreak global havoc.
Some will argue that because of the three-dimensional nature of space, opposing velocities, contradictory orbits, and such, it is overreacting to assert that we came within single-digit hours of colliding with an asteroid that would change they way we all live, possibly forever.
Sure, in three dimensions, the odds of a collision lessen, but this doesn't change the simple fact that had we been on converging paths, Monday, July 3, would have been the blackest day in our history. It's purely a matter of twiddling with mathematical equations, adjusting angles—splitting celestial hairs.
The point is simple, we have all had yet another cosmic brush with death—another very definite warning—and one day it won't be hours or even minutes away!
An update of the 2004 XP14 in science speak … still scary stuff:
Asteroid diameter = 900 m Volume (4/3 p r3) = 381,703,507.4 m3 Density (rock) = 3000 Kg / m3 Asteroid mass = 1.145 x 1012 kg Impact v = 17000 m/s KE (½ m v2) = 1.65 x 1020 J (1.65 x 1020 J = 3.95 x 104 megatons TNT)
Richard Macey from the Sydney Morning Herald
The Space Guard Story
Asteroid collision with Earth ruled out by NASA – hours later, it smashes into Caribbean
Asteroid warning: Space rock the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza to skim Earth
Search F.A.I.R. Society
Meteor Strike Injures Hundreds in Russia
Asteroid explosion over Indonesia raises fears about Earth's defences
Space Rock 2009 DD45 Buzzes Earth
Life's a Gamble
Are Ocean Asteroid Impacts Really a Serious Threat?
Another idea joins the list of blueprints for preventing an asteroid impact!
Spare a Small Thought for a Big Issue
Good News! Nearly all extinction-level asteroids have been found.
Why Are There No Pyramids or Ancient Temples in North America?
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Q: Cannot edit a page I've been editing previously I am using Sharepoint 2013, I am currently working a page but the "edit page" option at the top right has disappeared and when I click on the "page" option in teh toolbar the edit options are greyed out and a box appear when I try to click on edit. The box telling me that this function is currently disabled.
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Quick Review - Tiki Island - Preview
Designers: Matt Hyzer and
Christian Miedel
Publisher: Great Wight Games
Back in September, Great Wight Games ran a Kickstarter for their first game, Tiki Island. They contacted me about reviewing the game for that campaign, but their campaign was half over at the time and I couldn't squeeze a review in that quickly. But when that campaign was cancelled I told them I'd be happy to review it before a relaunch if they'd like. Well, a few months later I unexpectedly received Tiki Island in the mail and was excited to review it before their next campaign... which started the day after I received the game. Once again, I wasn't able to get a review out before their campaign end (I generally require a minimum of 4-8 weeks to get a review out, depending on my current queue, which has been packed solid since last summer). But I promised I'd review the game when I could fit it into my schedule, and since the second campaign was successful I figured I'd wait until closer to the release of the game. Tiki Island is scheduled to be delivered to backers in June, so if you're interested in it, you can preorder it for $40 now!
Despite the shaky start to my experience with Tiki Island, I was very curious about the gameplay, and was excited to play. It's a highly chaotic game for two to four players. Each player controls a group of three islanders that are escaping their island before it is destroyed (by volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, a kraken, etc.). Unfortunately, they're trying to escape to another island that is also being destroyed, but that's besides the point. As long as you can get your islanders to the island on the opposite side of the board they're safe.
What calamity is destroying your islanders' home?
To save your islanders you need to build smaller islands as stepping stones between the island you are escaping and the island you are trying to reach. The problem arises when your chain of islands meets up with an opponent's chain. Your islanders are only able to use your own islands or neutral islands, so as you build a chain you are also blocking your opponents' progress.
Starting out on a journey. Things look wide open, but that's about to change!
Tiki Island is a relatively simple game to play. On your turn you'll roll a die, determine what action to take - either one of the basic actions or the one allowed by the die, and play a card or two (maybe). Each player has four units - three islanders and one tiki. The islanders need to cross the central sea, but they can't stray too far from the tiki because only the tiki can build the little islands for the islanders to move across. Throughout the game you'll also acquire rune cards that will give you a variety of abilities that can influence the game.
Lots of rune cards ensure the game stays unpredictable.
There are three basic actions: Move, Build, and Draw a Rune. There are also two types of movement: standard movement and soaring movement. Standard movement allows you to move your islanders or tiki to any adjacent or neutral island. Soaring let's you move through enemy, occupied, or even ocean spaces, as long as you end your movement on a friendly or neutral island. Build let's you add an island anywhere within three spaces of your tiki. Draw a Rune simply gives you a rune card that can be used later.
When you roll your die to start your turn you'll have an advanced action available to you. A one let's you move four times. Two let's you build two islands. Three is build one and move two. Four allows you to soar up to three spaces. Five has you draw a rune and move one. Six allows you to choose any advanced action. If you don't like your advanced action option you always have three basic actions you can take: move two, build one, or draw a rune. You can also discard runes to get additional movement, build, or soar.
The main game is pretty simple and is a fairly dry, abstract strategy game, but the rune cards add life to the game. There are four types of rune cards that can give you special abilities, wreak havoc in the game, or protect you from that havoc (cue Allstate commercial).
As the board starts to fill up the tension builds.
Attack runes let you affect the board or your opponents directly. Attack runes usually have a pretty powerful effect, like devastating islands that your opponents may occupy, moving opponent pieces, or worse. However all attack runes also have a less disruptive effect, that may even harm you instead of your opponents. A roll of the die will determine which effect triggers. So, while powerful, attacks are sometimes risky - either being less effective than intended, or even backfiring horribly. It's a calculated risk, but whatever the outcome, the result will be more chaos!
Attack cards have two effects, one that's pretty powerful, and another that'll still change up the game,
but may take your pieces out, too. NOTE: Destroy means move your piece back to the start spaces.
No one is ever eliminated from Tiki Island.
Buff runes give you special one time boosts when you really need them (like extra moves, play a random rune card, etc.), protect you from attacks, and have other effects. These you'll hold onto and play at just the right time to give you the edge you need to overcome your opponents.
The flavor text throughout the game is a lot of fun.
Miscellaneous runes have all sorts of other effects, adding chaos to the game, or giving you useful abilities. Finally, Permanent runes remain in effect until something else cancels them. These usually give you special abilities that you can use turn after turn.
Permanent runes remain in play until a player rolls a six and decides to get rid of a permanent rune.
As I said, it's really the runes that make the game. Without the runes the game would still be fun and chaotic, but the runes really push it over the top. They add excitement, humor, twists, and a nice dash of take-that to an already fun game. They're not too aggressive or mean though, and offer just enough flair to help mitigate some bad luck and shake things up as needed.
By the end of the game the board is a crowded mess, but a very fun crowded mess!
Pink won this game by getting all his islanders off the board!
I was pleasantly surprised by Tiki Island. It looked fun originally, but after my first read through of the rules I wasn't too sure how it would play. Roll a die and do what it says or another basic action sounds a little too close to roll-and-move, but all of the options seem really well balanced and valuable in their own ways. I found that I always had plenty of options and games were always pretty close.
Tiki Island is a blast for gamers and non-gamers, young and old (not that I'm calling anyone in this picture old). =)
The first game I played was just a two player game and it was fun and chaotic, but I was concerned with how crowded the board would get with five or six players. When I played with more players I was happy to find that the game scaled extremely well, even though the board size remained the same. Higher player count games do take longer, but I never felt like it dragged or outstayed its welcome. The runes also have greater effect in higher player count games once playing one will potentially wreak havoc with many players' plans. In the two player game runes were still effective, but less chaotic overall, so the game tends toward more of a traditional abstract strategy game.
I liken Tiki Island to the classic Survive! (and the Survive: Escape From Atlantis reprint), but with a slightly different feel. The theme is similar and the take-that aspect is also similar, but there's less carnage and more chaos in Tiki Island. But if you like Survive!, Tiki Island should be right up your alley. Plus, it plays up to six, so now everyone can join in!
Even with two players the game is fun.
It's faster and less chaotic, but still fun.
The rules for Tiki Island are pretty straightforward and the rulebook is nicely laid out with good examples and diagrams. There is also a lot of humor throughout the game, in the flavor text, rulebook instructions, and artwork. And the artwork is really great. There is a ton of detail all throughout the game, from the killer whales and sharks in the water, to each island token in a set having unique artwork. Tiki Island will look great on your table when you play, and there isn't an aspect of the game that isn't chock full of fun.
The production copy will have hex shaped islands and some updated graphic design to make them more
color blind friendly, but each island will still have its own, unique artwork.
Tiki Island isn't a game to play if you want a deeply strategic brain burner. There is a ton of chance in this game, and any long term strategy you plan out will be over before your next turn, but if you like a bit of chaos in your games, and are happy with a crazy and silly experience, win or lose, Tiki Island will deliver.
If Tiki Island sounds like a game you'd love to bring out on family game night, be sure to check it out on the Great Wight Games site where you can preorder it for $40 now!
Tags: #BoardGameReviews, 6.5/10, Great Wight Games, Preview, Quick Review, review, Tiki Island
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The Common Cause New Mexico survey shows a drop from 38 percent to 24 percent of people who feel New Mexico is on the right track since the last poll.
ALBUQUERQUE - Very few New Mexicans are feeling optimistic about the state's progress, according to a Common Cause New Mexico poll released Wednesday.
The survey, regularly put out in advance of the primary elections, shows a drop in the number of people who feel the state is on the right track since the last pre-primary survey in 2014. This year's primary is June 5.
In 2014, the survey showed 38 percent believed New Mexico was headed in the right direction but, this year, that number dropped to 24 percent.
"New Mexico has had a hard time rebounding economically and population-wise compared to our neighboring states. I think people do get frustrated by this, plus crime has been a hot topic in many communities," said Brian Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling Inc., which conducted the survey.
At the same time, the poll captured continued strong support for government ethics and transparency reform.
Brian Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling Inc.
Ninety percent of those surveyed strongly or somewhat support requiring "all large political contributions from individuals, corporations, political action committees, nonprofits and unions to be made public." The same amount of support was recorded in 2014.
And 91 percent of those surveyed said they'd like to see lobbyists forced to make public the bills and subjects they are advocating for.
"Clearly there is strong support levels among New Mexicans for your standard good government reform," Sanderoff said.
The poll also shows 54 percent support for making legislator positions paid and 65 percent support for lengthening the short Legislative sessions.
In 2014, there was 85 percent support for the creation of an independent state ethics commission, with 66 percent of registered voters expressing strong support. Such a commission has been debated for decades in the state.
And this year, voters will have a chance to vote on creating one after legislators in 2017 approved a ballot measure for a constitutional amendment.
"That's an example of the Legislature making headway on something good government groups have been advocating on for decades," Sanderoff said.
Common Cause, the sponsor of the poll, has championed the ethics commission.
Common Cause describes itself as a nonpartisan, nonprofit group committed to honest, open and accountable government, and to encouraging citizen participation in democracy. It commissioned the poll and released results Wednesday.
The poll surveyed 452 registered voters in New Mexico by phone between Jan. 16-24 and results have a margin of error of about 4.6 percentage points.


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Secrets of Stonehenge revealed in All About History 119
By Jonathan Gordon
Inside All About History 119: Learn how and why this incredible ancient monument was built in Britain.
Secrets of Stonehenge
USS Indianapolis
History of Witches
In All About History issue 119 (opens in new tab), on sale now, you can discover the secrets of Stonehenge, such as how and why it was built, what life was like for those who lived around it and how it has survived the centuries since.
With all the latest research data and historical accounts, All About History breaks down everything you could want to know about the famous ancient monument, including dispelling a few common misconceptions.
Live Science regular contributor Owen Jarus is you guide to the world of Stonehenge in his must-read examination of one of the world's greatest landmarks.
Also in All About History 119, read about the history of witches, what could have happened if the Titanic hadn't sunk and learn about the great Chinese navigator and explorer, Zheng He.
Related: Read a free issues of All About History
Plus you can read a deep dive into the Weimar Republic, learn about the notorious French criminal Jacques Mesrine and review the tragic fate of the USS Indianapolis in the Pacific War of WWII.
Stonehenge is one of the oldest monuments in the world, but much about it remains a mystery. (Image credit: Erwin Bosman (CC0 1.0))
Stonehenge is a massive stone monument on a chalky plain north of the modern-day city of Salisbury, England. Research shows that the site continuously evolved over about 10,000 years and new discoveries continue to be made, revealing a complex landscape that scholars are still trying to understand.
SUBSCRIBE TO ALL ABOUT HISTORY
Subscribe to All About History (opens in new tab) today and save up to 91% on the cover price each issue with the 3 for $3 summer sale offer. Now is the best time to guarantee yourself a copy of All About History every month.
Many other ancient megalithic structures have been discovered all around the world. While many of them are thought to be older, some are bigger and a few, arguably, are more historically important, Stonehenge remains by far the most famous – a household name that attracts curious visitors from all over the planet.
Technologies such as ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic induction surveys are revealing the remains of structures located beneath the surface, allowing for new discoveries to be made about the landscape that Stonehenge is located in. Additionally, advances in the analysis of plant, animal and human remains are allowing scholars to learn more about the people who built and used Stonehenge. However, despite all these advances it's still not clear what Stonehenge was used for.
Read more in All About History 119 (opens in new tab).
Fate of the USS Indianapolis
The USS Indianapolis was a flagship of the US Navy in WWII and was involved in some crucial missions. (Image credit: National Museum of the U.S. Navy)
After completing its mission to deliver components of the nuclear bomb Little Boy to the island of Tinian in the Marianas during World War II, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-58 in the Philippine Sea shortly after midnight, 30 July 1945.
Approximately 300 men of the ship's complement of 1,195 personnel were killed when the warship plunged to the bottom just 12 minutes after being struck by two Type 95 torpedoes, while nearly 900 were cast into the sea with only life vests and a few rafts. Through a series of miscommunications, the sinking was not reported in a timely manner and the survivors drifted in the open sea for nearly four days. During the horrific period, many succumbed to saltwater poisoning, exposure to the elements, dehydration and relentless shark attacks.
After seemingly endless hours of agony, only 316 sailors were finally rescued, and the series of tragic events resulted in the greatest loss of life involving a single ship in the history of the US Navy.
Learn more about the USS Indianapolis All About History 119 (opens in new tab).
Figures of folklore and fear, witches have been a fascination for people in many peoples, dating back to ancient history. (Image credit: Kunsthistorisches Museum)
The belief in witchcraft and magic seems to have always cast a spell on the popular imagination. The image of the green-faced, pointy-hatted witch who cackles maniacally as she rides a broomstick across a starry night sky has adorned Halloween cards and the pages of fairy tale books for decades. Yet witchcraft itself has a long and convoluted history, the word often changing in meaning and certainly in the seriousness with which it is treated.
From the 16th to the 18th century, hoards of women were placed on trial, tortured and murdered under the charge of 'witchcraft'. In the 20th and 21st centuries it has become a subject for fantasy and fiction, with tales of bespectacled boy wizards and teenage witches with talking cats. But where does belief in witchcraft come from and how has it changed over the centuries?
"It's an incredibly ancient belief, actually," says Malcolm Gaskill, author of "The Ruin of All Witches (opens in new tab)", nominated for the 2022 Wolfson History Prize. "In the classical world, they believe in witches (though they don't always call them that) but there is the essential idea that there are demons out there in the universe and that they can be manipulated for good or for evil."
Read more about the history of witches in All About History 119 (opens in new tab).
Jonathan Gordon
Editor, All About History
Jonathan is the Editor of All About History magazine, running the day to day operations of the brand. He has a Bachelor's degree in History from the University of Leeds. He has previously worked as Editor of video game magazines games™ and X-ONE and tech magazines iCreate and Apps. He is currently based in Bournemouth, UK.


Sander Engineering 1″ Tubular Torsion Bars are now available at P1 Australia.
Sander Torsion Bars have been winning races since 1979.
Sander tubular torsion bars save about 3 pounds per bar. In addition, they react more quickly than solid torsion bars because they don't have the center to slow their twisting motion. Sander has made the tubular bars bigger in the center to allow for the hole and are stamped with the solid bar size. They will have the same rate as the solid bar, with a bigger center.
Have you noticed you cars handling isn't the same as it once was? This could be because your torsion bars have have "gone off". Have they been in for more than 20 meetings? New bars could get you back to victory lane!
Contact P1 Australia now and start the season fresh with new Sander Engineering Tubular Torsion Bars.


This is a placeholder page for Kathleen Stinedurf, which means this person is not currently on this site. We do suggest using the tools below to find Kathleen Stinedurf.
You are visiting the placeholder page for Kathleen Stinedurf. This page is here because someone used our placeholder utility to look for Kathleen Stinedurf. We created this page automatically in hopes Kathleen Stinedurf would find it. If you are not Kathleen Stinedurf, but are an alumni of Linesville High School, register on this site for free now.


During 2011/12 I developed an app called IDEA HIVE for iOS platforms. It was my first attempt at designing and co-ordinating an app that I came up with. I had it built overseas which was a great learning curve. I gained new skills and learnt many things involved in app design and implementation - including how to manage and get the app up on the iTunes store.
Idea Hive was a tool for users to get their ideas jotted down anywhere quickly before they forgot, whether it's a screenplay or even a great invention. The app allowed attachments including voice/video recordings and also snap images to develop the users concept.
login to keep that idea moving along.
The user could then save on a secure server. Once happy with the concept they could then select to receive an outlined pdf of the content in a easy to understand and designed layout that they could then either email to someone to print out.


Your work will be completed successfully and efficiently using this team. You will receive the greatest residential remodel services achievable if you find a engineer specialist. People who already had them install decorative beams have loved this business's services. Boost your domestic redecorating plan using engineer technicians from Drew Excavation. Their personnel are driven to make you thrilled. Drew Excavation's first objective is delivering complete peace of mind to all of their consumers. This crew features fully thorough and professional decorative beam installation everywhere around Casco. Whenever you want decorative beam installation work handled, this team stands available to be of assistance.
The skilled specialists from this team will turn any dream household into a reality. The skilled and experienced team of contractors at this agency properly install decorative beams featuring trustworthiness you can have confidence in. Drew Excavation: fully bonded, insured, and qualified to complete engineer within the Casco vicinity. To help make your house remodeling in Casco a comprehensive success, be sure to call engineers with Drew Excavation. Feel free to call their consumer assistance in Casco, ME at 2076553015 for your totally free quote! Their address: 791 Roosevelt Trail, in Casco. The workers of this organization utilize just the premier hardware and components in the industry, such as: surface preparation, fasteners, finishing materials and connectors. Drew Excavation's repairmen have managed engineer throughout the 04015 community.
A responsible specialist who is an authority in engineer may give your domestic makeover task the finest final results. The best accessories and materials, such as surface preparation, fasteners, finishing materials and connectors are brought by their personnel. Their professionals feature many years of expertise executing tasks including decorative beam installation and decorative beam installation. You can rely upon the contractors from Drew Excavation to fulfill domestic engineer with the maximum dependability and knowledge obtainable around Casco. The broadest catalog of decorative beam installation jobs around Casco can be seen with this firm. Anything, including intricate property assignments such as decorative beam installation have been simplified by this company.


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AP Technology
Instagram trying to reconnect users locked out of accounts
by The Associated Press - 10/31/22 11:18 AM ET
FILE – The Instagram logo is seen on a cell phone, Oct. 14, 2022, in Boston. Instagram said it was working on an issue that left a seemingly large number of users locked out of their accounts Monday, Oct. 31, 2022. Some users reported seeing a message that they were locked out but were still able to scroll through their feeds. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, file)
NEW YORK (AP) — Instagram said it was working on an issue that left a seemingly large number of users locked out of their accounts Monday morning.
Some users reported seeing a message that they were locked out but were still able to scroll through their feeds. Others posting on Twitter said they were completely shut out. Some reported that their number of followers dropped, presumably because those accounts were locked.
The number of people complaining of being locked out of their accounts began to spike around 8:30 a.m. Eastern.
It was unclear whether the problem was an internal issue or whether the social media site had been hacked.
"We are aware that some Instagram users in different parts of the world are having issues accessing their Instagram accounts," said a spokesperson for Meta. "We're working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and apologize for the inconvenience."
Users flooded social media platforms about the issue and Instagram acknowledged the problem on Twitter at 10:14 a.m. Eastern. In a couple of hours, the tweet had received more than 14,000 comments and was retweeted more than 40,000 times.
More AP Technology News
by MEAD GRUVER, Associated Press 15 hours ago
AP Technology / 15 hours ago
by BARBARA ORTUTAY and JILL COLVIN, Associated Press 3 days ago
Elon Musk's tweeting style seizes spotlight in Tesla trial
by MICHAEL LIEDTKE, Associated Press 3 days ago
by KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press 3 days ago


The Pope gets it – people first, connections, interconnectedness, and solidarity and money is a result, not the purpose of our work.
We should never forget this.
The oath that our new CPAs took and our middle name – Certified "Public" Accountants – speak directly to the Pope's advice, to place man and the public good at the center of all activity.
Thank you, your Holiness, for that inspiration!


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lørdag 20. juni 2020
Tencent is building a Monaco-sized 'city of the future' in Shenzhen
Technology giant Tencent has unveiled plans for an almost entirely car-free "city of the future," equivalent in size to Monaco, in the Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen. Dubbed "Net City," the 2-million-square-meter (22-million-square-foot) urban development will prioritize pedestrians, green spaces and self-driving vehicles, according to its designers.The ambitious city-within-a-city is set to occupy a stretch of reclaimed land jutting out into the Pearl River estuary. Designed to accommodate a population of some 80,000 people, the site will primarily serve Tencent, the conglomerate behind WeChat and China's popular QQ messaging service.
But as well as providing company residences and offices, the neighborhood is expected to host shops, schools and other public amenities, and will be connected to the rest of Shenzhen via road bridges, ferries and the city's subway system. The American firm behind the master plan, NBBJ, hopes that the new district's entertainment venues, parks and waterside promenade will attract visitors from elsewhere in the city.


THE PRELIM, MIDDAY AND SCRIPTS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE WEB AT WWW.CTNSNEWS.COM .
THE CHAIRMAN OF THE ASSEMBLY PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE WANTS GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER TO SIGN A BILL CREATING A PILOT PROGRAM TO TRAIN PAROLED JUVENILE OFFENDERS FOR JOBS IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY. ASSEMBLYMAN JOSE SOLORIO AND FORMER JUVENILE PAROLEES RALLIED THIS MORNING FOR THE GOVERNOR TO SIGN THE BILL.
IF THE BILL PASSES, 200 JUVENILE PAROLEES WOULD BE ENROLLED IN THE FEDERAL YOUTH BUILD PROGRAM, WITH TRAINS 18 TO 24 YEAR OLDS IN VOCATIONAL CONSTRUCTION SKILLS BY BUILDING AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECTS. SOLORIO SAYS THOSE JOB SKILLS WILL GREATLY INCREASE THE LIKELIHOOD JUVENILE PAROLEES WILL OBTAIN JOBS WHEN RELEASED. THE COST FOR THE PROGRAM IS ABOUT 10-THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR EACH PAROLEE, BUT SOLORIO SAYS INCARCERATING JUVENILES IS MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE, AND THE RECIDIVISM RATE FOR STUDENTS ENROLLED IN SIMILAR PROGRAMS IS 15 PERCENT, COMPARED TO THE 70 PERCENT RECIDIVISM RATE OF ADULT PRISON INMATES.
SAYS: "IT IS GOING TO BE A COMPETITIVE PROGRAM STATEWIDE, WE'RE LOOKING AT YOUNG PEOPLE THAT LEAVE THE DIVISION OF JUVENILE JUSTICE, AS WELL AS VARIOUS COUNTY PROBATION PROGRAMS, AND THAT'S PART OF WHAT THE ADMINISTRATION'S GOING TO DO, IS, UH, IS DECIDE WHAT COMMUNITIES WILL BENEFIT, BUT THEY'LL BE 200 STATEWIDE YOUTH, WE'LL ALWAYS ENVISION, YOU KNOW, WE'RE LOOKING AT MAYBE SIX TO TEN CITIES, THAT WOULD PARTICIPATE, BUT THAT'S SOMETHING THAT WOULD BE WORKED OUT BY THE ADMINISTRATION."
SOLORIO SAYS THERE ARE NO PROVISIONS IN HIS BILL FOR THE EARLY RELEASE OF JUVENILE INMATES, AND IT HAS BEEN ENDORSED BY THE CALIFORNIA POLICE CHIEFS ASSOCIATION. THE GOVERNOR HAS NOT ANNOUNCED A POSITION ON THE BILL.
SAYS: "THE GOVERNOR DOES HAVE A GANG-REDUCTION AND INTERVENTION PROGRAM. WE THINK THIS PROGRAM FITS RIGHT IN LINE WITH HIS PROGRAM. HE ALSO BELIEVES IN RE-ENTRY FOR ADULTS, THIS IS RE-ENTRY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE, SO WE THINK WE HAVE A FEW THINGS IN OUR FAVOR, BUT WE'LL FIND OUT PRIOR TO OCTOBER 14TH .


Today was my third quarterly visit to the endocrinologist and as usual it was exciting and simultaneously unexciting because that's how endocrinologist appointments go. The night before, I introduced my little sister to Diasend because both of us are eternally lazy when it comes to logging and this program makes it easy to upload data from all of your medical devices onto one easy to read chart that my endo likes. (And it's a little important that the endo likes it, since she is the one helping interpret the data.) My sister has a t:slim, so she can easily plug in her pump and upload data. I felt inspired to do the same with mine, but mine is an Animas Ping. That means that I had to pull out an IR Reader.
At this point you may be wondering: "Sarah, what is an IR reader?" Oh well in the ancient days when I began using Animas pumps, they used these things to wirelessly transfer data from the pump to the computer. I even remember using one to change the song for my pump alarms. They may seem innovative/ easy to use, but it's not the wireless/ bluetooth type thing you're probably thinking of. I have to take my pump off, suspend, it, place it on a flat, non-moving surface with the back facing the reader, and hold it as still as possible until the green light that confirms it is lined up stays solid green. This process takes way too long and I may have had to hold my pump in place for an amount of time that made my arm sore. #thanksanimas (Here's a video if you care to know how this thing actually works.) Now back to your regularly scheduled endocrinologist-themed programming. Let's skip to the next day because all that happened after that was complaining about the previously discussed ancient technology and printing charts.
I was awoken at 6:45 in confusion because we had to leave at 7:15 AM to get to our appointment at 8:45. (You know, to compensate for Atlanta traffic.) Apparently everyone is on vacation and we didn't get the memo because we got to Atlanta at 8. That's uncalled for record speed. So of course, we did what any group of tired people that got up way too early for a doctor's appointment would do: we went to Starbucks. In case you were wondering, I got a hot chocolate with a shot of hazelnut (because #nutella) and an egg and cheddar biscuit, my mom got an Earl Grey tea and a blueberry muffin, and my sister got a iced green tea lemonade. I'm sure the endo was very happy that we all had a bunch of sugar before coming over.
We left Starbucks and arrived fashionably late (by two minutes) because that's just how we are. I signed us all in and I got to sign my own HIPPA release, so my parents can still see my medical files. (The excitement of being an official adult.) My mother also talked to the office about my CGM upgrading issues. (There will be a whole blog post for that next week because the story behind that is too long and exciting for just half of a blog post.) Thankfully, those should be mostly solved by next week and I should be getting a CGM soon.
My A1c, which never seems to change according to my sister, was 7.2%. (It went down by 0.1%, so her point may be proven.) I'm not complaining about it, but I definitely want to work on going below 7%. We changed some of my sensitivity factors, since I always seem to be going to bed high as well as my evening basal to combat highs. I'll be sending logs in next week after I test those changes, so we should be able to see if those help out soon. We also talked about college and talking to my roommate about diabetes, as well as the Disability Resource Center, since I'm being put into their system next week. I'm doing this mainly so I can have testing accommodations. I'm having my official meeting with the DRC next week, so I'll share more about that in the next few weeks. I'm also super excited for my sister because she will be getting a Dexcom soon! I love my CGM and I think it will help her a ton, so I'm psyched for her.
I'll update you all on how my basal/ ISF changes worked, my CGM woes, and college, so stay tuned for that. I promise it's coming!
The disability center will be a great resource. My wife, worked at one at the university where she worked. It was a great resource for all students and i predict it will be for you as well.